You can't directly invest in the market's hottest AI start-ups, including OpenAI and Anthropic, unless you're an accredited investor or a venture capitalist. However, you can still follow those companies, see how much funding they attract, and see if they're headed for an IPO.
One of those hot start-ups is Baseten, an AI infrastructure company that focuses on the inference layer -- the part of the AI stack that connects a trained AI model to user-facing applications. Its technology can help companies reduce inference costs by more than 40%.
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Basten's revenue soared from $2.7 million in 2023 to $15.8 million in 2025, and its valuation hit $5 billion after its latest $300 million funding round. Its top investors in that round included IVP, CapitalG, and Nvidia (NVDA 1.14%). That support from Nvidia, which contributed $150 million to that funding round, suggests it's a promising long-term play on the AI market's expansion.
Baseten's defensible niche and explosive growth rates will likely attract even more funding this year. It could also become a tempting takeover target for bigger tech companies. If it doesn't get acquired, it would definitely be a hot AI IPO -- but investors should be wary of its valuations.
